Seven Years At Hogwarts
by Caitlyn90
Summary: Marauders Era - Lily and Sev started Hogwarts as best friends, but will they still be close in seven years? Hogwarts is ready to test their friendship to breaking point, and a lot can happen in a world of magic that neither of them are prepared to face.
1. Starting Out

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, any characters or places named in these stories

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, any characters or places named in these stories.**

"Oh my gosh it's here oh my gosh it's here oh my gosh-"

"It doesn't matter how many times you repeat that, it's still going to be there."

"Oh my gosh Sev, it's actually here!"

"Anyone would think you'd never seen a train before Lil."

And you would, looking at the small red headed girl standing in the corner of platform 9¾. The two adults standing behind her aren't much better though. The three wear identical looks of shock, staring squarely at the gleaming red train sitting beside the platform. Behind them, another young girl looks conveniently bored, pointedly avoiding eye contact with everyone, especially her sister.

Beside them a young boy looks out of place. His clothes look unwashed, and his dark hair seems incompatible with his friend and her family.

Mind you, the whole lot of them look out of place on this platform. Others bustle about with trunks and owls, shouting at each other in greetings or frustration as groups meet jovially together or someone goes flying over a stray trunk or broomstick.

They are, of course, the Evans's. And the boy with them is Severus Snape, whose parents declined to come with him to the station.

"Do you think we'd better go and get a seat?"

"Um."

"Yes come on Lily, Severus is right. Don't want to have to fight off any of these older years now, do we?" For all his geniality, Lily's father does not seem overjoyed at the prospect of leaving his daughter to board a train to a world he knows nothing about. But he knows he has to let her at come point, so it might as well be now.

As the train moved off, Lily felt a familiar jolt in her stomach. It was the kind of jolt you got when going to the dentist, or when your favourite cat had to go to the vet, or when her great aunt came to stay. It was not a good sign.

Sev slipped his arm through hers. "Don't look so worried. We'd better go find a seat or we'll be standing the whole way."

Sensing Lily's nerves, he kept up a commentary as she followed him down the corridor. "Third year, no. Fourth year, no. Prefect, definitely no. Second year, maybe if we can't get space anywhere else. Oh, here's an empty one."

He was nearly right. Exactly as they reached the empty carriage, so did another group coming the other way down the train.

"I say!" Exclaimed the boy leading the other group. "Are you looking for a compartment as well? Tell me you're first years?"

Sev and Lily nodded, stunned by the confidence of a first year.

"Excellent! How about we all bundle in here then?"

Without waiting for an answer, he pushed Sev gently into the compartment and followed him in, as did the rest of his group. Lily followed them in and was relieved to find that Sev had saved a seat for her.

The leading boy from the other group seemed to be in charge.

"Well this is a jolly good show isn't it? I say, tell us your names then."

Lily wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. This overbearing boy seemed to be nice, but he wasn't half forceful. And he spoke in such a dreadfully posh way. From what Sev had told her, he wouldn't last long like that at Hogwarts.

"I'm Lily Evans."

"Severus Snape"

"Lovely. I'm Tobias Smythe." He gestured behind him and left his companions to introduce themselves.

"Peter Flynn." Muttered the smallest of the boys, short and thin with glasses and short brown hair he was the sort you wouldn't notice in a class unless he was pointed out to you.

"Tessa Clarke." Clearly not going to be shut out of the limelight, she accompanied this simple statement with a winning smile and a toss of her mass of bright blonde curls.

"Luke Moss." The larger boy barely seemed to have spoken, and proceeded to stare out of the window as he did so, obviously he could care less about the proceedings inside the carriage.

"Eleanor Robertson." Confided the last of them to Sev and Lily directly.

Lily surveyed the group of them. Tessa seemed average for their age, except for her hair, which extended well down her back and would not have been out of place on a film set. Eleanor seemed almost as shy as Peter, though probably more friendly, thought Lily. Eleanor's dark brown hair was pulled back into a no-nonsense ponytail, with a block fringe at the front, which didn't quite hide her exceptionally bright blue eyes. Lily almost forgot to form an opinion on Luke, in fact she nearly forgot he was there, but she decided he was either exceptionally moody or the strong silent type. As they were going to be sharing a carriage for a while now, she hoped it would be the second option.

As she had been thinking, Tobias had continued talking in his posh manner, and Lily was glad to see it wasn't only her who found it amusing.

"Jolly good show!" He exclaimed at something Tessa had been saying. Lily guessed it probably didn't have anything to do with show business. She remembered people in some of her dad's old books talking like that.

"Scuse me," interrupted Sev, "hope you don't mind me asking, but are you muggle born?"

"Why yes." Nodded Tobias. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I've never heard anyone of wizarding descent talk like you do."

"Like I do?"

Lily began to worry that he might get less friendly, but Tessa stifled a laugh, unsuccessfully.

"You're a grammar school boy are you?"

"No. I've always been to a public school. Why"

"You talk posh. Enough said." Butted in Luke, though Sev was relieved he didn't have to be the one to say it.

"Really? I've never thought that."

"It's probably never been a problem. But it might be at Hogwarts. You'll stick out like a sort thumb. And believe me, as a first-year, that's the last thing you want to do!" Advised Sev.

"And you'd know all about it would you?"

"Yes." Sev shrugged. "I'm pure blood, so I think I would."

"Urgh!" Exclaimed Tessa. "You're not one of them are you?"

"One of whom?" Though Sev thought he might just know.

"You know, pure blood," Tessa paused and lowered her voice "mudblood, and all that."

"You mean Slytherin?"

"Yeah I guess I do." Tessa didn't look too brave anymore, but she stood her ground.

"Yeah I might just be." Sev shot back at her. "Got a problem with that?"

Silence rattled around the compartment. Lily closed her eyes, she hadn't realised it would become like this so early.

"Both my parents are wizarding folk." Eleanor broke in. "And I don't think you have to be a Slytherin to use pure blood. It's the other word that's a problem."

"What, mudblood?" Asked Tobias. "What does that mean?"

More silence. Lily wanted to answer, but she knew she didn't really know enough about it. All she knew was that it was a bad name to call someone, the rest Sev hadn't told her.

Finally, Peter spoke up. "It's an insult to people with muggle parents, that is, non-magical parents. It sort of means bad blood. If anyone calls you it th-"

"You'd better punch them then do a runner before they can hex you." Interrupted Luke.

"Only really evil people use it," commented Tessa, giving Sev an evil look, "mostly Slytherins."

Sev gave her a dirty look, and a difficult silence set like fog over the group.

Tobias had lost a bit of his bravado. "So, are many people… what did you say? Muggleborn?" Lily could tell he was trying to sound less posh, and she wished she could have told him it was working, but it really wasn't.

"I am." She told him. "So I hope so too."

"I'm half and half" chipped in Peter "and my mum said it wouldn't be a problem. There's loads of people from each background and everyone starts off pretty much equal."

Tobias breathed a sigh of relief and looked much happier, smiling at Lily. Lily realised they hadn't been through everyone yet.

"What about you, Tessa? And Luke?"

"Technically they're both magical." Put in Tessa.

"Pure blood" said Luke, almost aggressively. "And why technically? They're either wizards, witches or muggles."

Tessa blushed. "Mum's a witch and dad's a squib." The last four words were so quiet Lily could barely hear them, not that she knew what they meant.

Lily looked questioningly at Sev. Tobias did likewise. Sev motioned that he would tell them later.

"That's nothing to be ashamed of Tessa. Loads of people nowadays are. Don't worry about it. None of us are going to judge you on it."

"Thanks." Tessa smiled at him.

Lily smiled at him too. Petunia was definitely wrong, Sev was the nicest boy she knew, and that's why he was her best friend. They were going to go to the same school for the next seven years. What could possibly go wrong?

**Entirely new story! This is the first one I've written without a plan. Any ideas for plot direction gratefully received, and I'll pad them out!**

**Please keep reviewing and let me know what you think. Compliments and constructive criticism equally useful. Thanks!!**


	2. Stepping In

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, any characters or places named in these stories.**

**AN: The majority of this story will be AU. Though the basics may correlate to J.K Rowling's work, the plotline will probably not. Some chapters may agree with things you have read in the books, others will be entirely the work of fanfic!**

**Thanks to eVille and keaneplay for their reviews and input into this chapter**

"You lot will need to ch-"

Whatever the prefect had been expecting to see, it was clearly not what was going on. Luke was still staring out of the window, but the rest of the room was pandemonium. Scared by the revelations of Hogwarts from Sev and Tessa, Tobias had decided that he needed to research the school and magic in general. Sev and Eleanor were trying to help him go through his massive collection of extra books, while Tessa was showing Lily the errors in Hogwarts: A History.

This had, of course, descended into chaos. Tessa thought Tobias was talking too loudly, so she threw Introduction To Charms at him. It hit Peter, who proved he was not the pushover he first seemed by lobbing Transfiguration For Beginners right back at her. At the moment the perfect walked in, almost the entire contents of their trunks had been emptied onto the floor for use as missiles.

The prefect raised her eyebrows and drew her wand. Muttering quietly she waved it in circular motions and everything rose into the air and packed itself neatly into their trunks. She stashed her wand beneath her robes and continued as if nothing had happened.

"As I was saying, you lot will need to change into your robes now, we'll be at Hogwarts soon. Do I need to stay, or can you do it without killing each other?"

"No, we're ok." Mumbled Tessa.

"Good." She left the room as swiftly as she had come, and they could hear her telling another prefect about it just outside. "They were completely insane…"

Sev laughed. "We'd better change then. We don't want to be the only ones in muggle clothing for the sorting."

As they were changing, Tobias found more things to talk about. He'd barely stopped talking for the whole journey. Sev fervently hoped he wasn't in the same house as him.

"You know what's strange about these uniforms?" He didn't wait for an answer, but simply proceeded. "There isn't a tie. I've never seen a respectable uniform without a tie."

"You get your tie when you know what house you're in. It's in your house colours."

"Oh right. Excellent. When is that decided?"

"When we're sorted." Sev sounded rather exasperated, he was sure they'd talked about sorting earlier. He hoped they weren't going to go through it again.

"I'd like to be in Ravenclaw," Eleanor confided in Lily, "it sounds by far the best of the four. My mum was a Gryffindor though, and my dad was in Hufflepuff, so I don't know where I'll be."

"Nobody really knows where they'll be until we get there though." Sev assured them all quickly.

"I thought you said earlier you were a Slytherin?" Asked Tobias. Lily remembered this discussion, and realised Tobias probably didn't know the sort of conversation that could follow on from that sort of a statement. As if on cue, Tessa stiffened, readying herself for a fight.

"Yes Sev, that's what you said."

"Actually," broke in Peter, "he said he might be."

Tessa opened her mouth to argue, but at that moment the train drew into a station. Lily wondered how on earth they had got there without her realising, she would have to pay attention when she next went home and came back. She and Sev were the last to leave the compartment.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"All that Slytherin stuff."

"Oh I'm used to that, dad's told me some things about it. Besides, inside Hogwarts everyone is like that about every other house. I hope you'll be in Slytherin with me though." He smiled and left.

Lily followed him off the train, wondering. Did she want to be a Slytherin? She wanted to be with Sev – she knew that much. But after everything she had heard and read did she really want to be involved with a house associated with so much evil. She did if it involved Sev, she persuaded herself.

In front of her, Sev it his lip. There was no way they could be together. The chances of him not being in Slytherin were small. He wanted to be in Slytherin anyway. But Lily was muggleborn. No, they weren't going to be in the same house. But you could still be best friends across houses. Of course you could.

They followed the line of first years following a professor to the lake to cross by boat. Sev and Lily found themselves in a boat with Eleanor and another girl they didn't recognise. She had short black hair and a rather pretty face. She was friendly though, introduced herself as Rebecca and began to talk at high speed.

"Are you looking forward to this?"

"To what, sorry?"

"The sorting?"

"Um."

"I am. My older brother Dan tried to tell me it was a really hard test of magic that you could fail and they'd just send you back again if you couldn't do enough, but mum caught me practicing and forced him to de-gnome the entire garden!"

Sev and Eleanor laughed at the idea. Lily had no idea what that meant, but she presumed it was a bad punishment and giggled anyway.

"Yeah, mum and dad were both Ravenclaw, so it was a bit of a shock when Dan got put into Hufflepuff. It's sort of a family joke now. I'd like to go into Ravenclaw really, and families often get put together, but then that means I might go in Hufflepuff, which I wouldn't really like! I probably shouldn't say that though, they're all supposed to be equal."

After what seemed to be an age of Rebecca talking, they arrived at the castle. Lily had he back to it as they arrived, and nearly fell out of the boat in surprise as she turned round and saw it. She was caught by a passing professor.

"Careful there Miss, we don't want to lose any students before we've started term, do we now?"

"Um, no sir."

"Good. You four had better hurry along into the castle with the others for the sorting."

"Yes sir."

They followed the line of nervous first years through the huge doors into the castle.

"Who was that?"

"A professor?"

"I know that Sev, you're supposed to know more about this than me."

He nudged her lightly in the ribs, a smile playing on his lips. Lily couldn't remember ever having seen him so happy. There was something about Hogwarts that had almost made him light up. Or was it just being away from the muggles?

A movement at the front of the group distracted them. A professor had appeared so suddenly through the doors at the end of the corridor that the students at the front of the group had literally run straight into her. The rest of the group followed dodgem- style into the back of them. There was very nearly a bundle on the floor. This concept amused Lily somewhat and she began to giggle at the thought. Rebecca glared sternly at her. Lily was surprised; she hadn't thought her to be the uptight sort. You can always be wrong, she reasoned.

"Welcome first years" began the professor, commanding full attention "in a minute you will progress to the main hall, where you will be sorted into houses. Some of you may know that there are four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own common room, dormitories, benches in the hall and ghosts, amongst other things. I hope you will all become a credit to whichever house you are placed in. In a moment you will enter together to be sorted. For now, wait here in a quiet and orderly fashion." And with a steely eye she vanished through the doors into the main hall.

There was silence in the hallway. Nobody wanted to be the first to speak, in case it broke the 'quiet' order. And then, as it is quietest before the storm, all hell broke loose.

It started with a quiet ticking noise. Lily's first thought was that it could have been a bomb. She knew it wasn't, however, when she saw the look on Sev's face. Though he wasn't against muggle life, nothing Lily had ever seen in the muggle world had made his face light up like this.

"Sev?"

"Move out of the way a bit Lil, someone's let off a fizzing whizbee!"

"A what?"

"Um, a bit like indoor fireworks, but it's going to make a lot more noise and mess!" Considering this, Sev still looked majorly excited. Lily very nearly laughed at him, but was a little more interested in what was going to happen to this fizzing whizbee.

The ticking was replaced by a fizzing noise, which nobody noticed due to a mass of pale figures drifting through one of the walls, heading for the doors.

"Oh, first years!" Exclaimed one.

"Hello there, don't mind us. Good luck with your sorting!"

"Bless them; they looked positively scared of us." And with that, they vanished through the doors the professor had used a few minutes before.

BANG

To say the fizzing whizbee exploded would be an understatement. The entire hallway was filled with bright red light, orange sparks and hundreds of little yellow rockets which rebounded off all four walls and collided with each other, blowing up into more rockets to add to the display.

The students failed to remain quiet and ordered. Most of them chose to scream and run around with their hands covering their heads while a few jumped to try and catch the rockets. Lily was trying to make herself as small and less of a target as possible when Sev caught her arm and pulled her over to a small cluster of boys by the wall.

"I take it that was yours." He said to the group, as a group of rockets detonated above their heads.

The leader, a tall boy with a mass of messy black hair, stepped forward. "So what if it was?"

Sev shrugged. "No reason. Just wondered how many more you're planning to se off before the end of the day."

As the black-haired boy was about to reply, one of the others tapped him on the shoulder and whispered something to him. He grinned sarcastically at Sev, and Lily got the feeling that maybe they shouldn't have come over.

"Hmm," began the black-haired boy, "and I see no reason to tell a sneaking Slytherin like you anything about me or my friends. So why don't the two of you" he gestured towards Sev and Lily "crawl back down whichever hole you came from, and stay there."

He turned triumphantly back to his friends, who congratulated him with plenty of high fives and lots of cheering "Go Potter".

Sev looked at Lily. "I thought I recognised one of them as a Black, so thought they'd be friendly, especially if they recognised me as a Slytherin." Lily was about to ask why they had used him being a Slytherin as such an insult, but at that moment the professor reappeared through the door.

It should be noted at this point that the havoc had not died down. Most of the walls had been dyed black by the explosions, most of the students were shrieking in fright still, crashing into each other in a desperate attempt to avoid the rockets which were still raging around the area. Those students who had noticed the professor stopped and arranged their faces into innocent expressions.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN IS GOING ON HERE?"

Everyone noticed the professor at that, and froze. There was a squeal of pain as a spark collided with someone. The professor waved her wand and the debris cleared, as did the light and sparks.

"This is NOT the sort of behaviour we expect from Hogwarts students." She shouted at them. "Rest assured that if I EVER find out who did this I will ensure they are put straight back on the Hogwarts express." She paused to let this message sink in.

"Fortunately for you we do not have time to interrogate you all now. If you make so much as a squeak during the sorting I will have you out. Understood? Good, now follow me."

And they did, through the enormous doors into the grandest hall Lily had ever seen, between rows of older students, all staring at them as they passed, to the end of the hall below the table where all the professors were seated. Lily began to feel worried and looked for Sev. As always he was next to her, he noticed the look on her face and smiled at her.

"Good luck." He whispered.

"You too." She managed a nervous smile.

The sorting began, and it soon became clear it was alphabetical order. Sev breathed a silent sigh of relief, while Lily got more and more worried. Sev slipped his hand into hers to reassure her.

"Addington, Bryony" called the professor.

"Ravenclaw" responded the hat.

Lily blinked. The hat had done the sorting. For the first time she realised what coming to Hogwarts could mean. She had better get used to this.

When Tessa's name was called she strode confidently to the stool and sat. The hat took a very long time to decide, and whispers started to move around the hall.

"RAVENCLAW" the hat called eventually.

Lily barely noticed where other people were going to, concentrating only on Sev beside her, she nearly missed her own turn.

"Evans, Lily."

She walked up to the stool, which seemed to be moving further and further away from her. She was shaking as she sat down and the hat came down over her head.

"Hmmm, a strong mind you have there" came a gruff voice from nowhere "thoughtful and brave as well." The hat was talking to her! "Let's see, better be… GRYFFINDOR!"

The gold and red clad table exploded into cheers and she ran over to join them, remembering just in time to give the hat back to the professor first. Her face burning, she slid onto the bench next to Sirius Black, who had been the first person to be made a Gryffindor. Lily recognised him as being part of the group who had set off the fizzing whizbee, and realised he must have been the one Sev had talked about. Either way, he had been mean to her best friend, so she was going to ignore him, at least for a bit.

"Well done you two!" Came voices from all around them, including the prefect Lily recognised from the train.

More and more people joined all four tables. She and Sirius were soon joined by Eleanor, Rebecca (both of whom she already knew), Louise, Alice and several others whose names she had already forgotten by the time the food arrived. When Remus, Peter and James also arrived at the Gryffindor table she realised the whole fizzing whizbee group was in her house. Great.

Peter Flynn joined Tessa in Ravenclaw; Tobias went to Hufflepuff and Luke to Slytherin.

Sev was one of the last to be sorted. He suddenly looked very small among the masses of people in the great hall, and Lily had to stop herself rushing out to hug him.

"Snape, Severus."

The hat had barely touched his head when it screamed "SLYTHERIN!"

Lily watched him go with a sinking feeling in her heart. She had really hoped to be in the same house as her best friend. She tried to meet his eye as he sat on the other side of the room to her, but he was too busy with his newfound friends and didn't even look over to her.

It was only after the food arrived that he looked over to her table. She waved at him, and he smiled back for a moment. But something was different, sitting on opposite sides of the biggest hall Lily had ever been in, and they both knew it.

**Long chapter there! Please review, comments on content especially. More action needed? Ideas? Please let me know what you think!**

**Thanks!**


	3. The First Week Is The Hardest

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, any characters or places named in these stories.**

**Thanks to eVille and keaneplay for their reviews and help.**

**Any readers who would be interested in beta reading for me, please send me a message!**

Three days into term, and things were not going well. This was the greatest understatement ever for Lily as she pegged it through the corridors towards her transfiguration class. At least, she hoped she had transfiguration now, it wouldn't be the first time she'd ended up in the wrong place. Outside the classroom she paused, then pushed the door open slightly and peered inside.

"Ah, Miss Evans, glad you could join us."

Lily stepped inside the classroom. "Sorry Professor, I got lost."

"Maybe next time you could stay with your classmates and follow them to your lessons."

"Yes Professor." Lily decided it wasn't a great time to tell Professor McGonagall that she'd only got lost because she'd taken a detour into the girls bathrooms on the way up from Potions.

"Right. Take a seat Miss Evans."

Lily hurried to the back row, and the only empty seat she could see. Sliding into it she turned to find herself sitting next to Sirius Black.

"Alright Lily?"

"Black, stay quiet at the back there." Professor McGonagall turned her wrath on him as she heard him interrupting her second lesson on transfiguring matches. Lily nodded to him and pulled her wand, a quill and parchment out of her bag.

Soon enough, Professor McGonagall set them to work trying to transfigure their matchsticks into needles. Sharing a match between them, Lily soon worked out that Sirius was much better at talking than he was at working.

"So Lily. Why were you late? Really?"

"I got lost."

"Right." Pause. "Don't you trust me?"

"Trust you with what"

"Why you were late?"

Lily frowned. Boys did this, didn't they? Acted like complete idiots then somehow managed to make you look stupid in front of the entire class. Well she wasn't falling for it this time, not when she was trying so hard to make friends with these people.

"I. Got. Lost." She enunciated slowly and clearly. Got it? Now, you try with this matchstick thing."

"You didn't really get lost though, did you?"

"I don't know what on earth you might mean, and I don't really care." Well, Sirius could be an exception to the making friends rule for today.

"Well Miss Evans, Mr Black, we don't seem to have made much progress with our needles now, do we?" Professor McGonagall had crept up on them. "Shall we have a go now?"

"Ladies first." Smiled Black; Lily was tempted to punch him.

"Confidence, Mr Black?" Smiled McGonagall menacingly. "Maybe you'd like to show the rest of the class how it's done."

Sirius paled slightly, but only for a moment. Rolling back his sleeves, he cleared his throat and waved his arms extravagantly. Lily attempted not to giggle, aided by McGonagall's stern gaze.

Sirius completed his 'spell' and promptly vanished under a cloud of black smoke.

"Perhaps not, Mr Black. Miss Evans, your turn."

Professor McGonagall handed Lily a new match and turned her gaze on her. Lily could feel her face warming up and tried to ignore the stares of some of her classmates, who had clearly decided that this was more interesting than attempting the same with their own matches.

Lily tried her hardest to copy what McGonagall had showed them at the end of the last lesson, but by the end of the spell she wasn't entirely convinced she had done anything to it.

"Impresive Miss Evans."

Lily dared to open her eyes. The match appeared to be made of metal.

"That's the hardest part over with; the shape is all you've got left to work on. Well done." She then addressed the whole class. "We'll do more next lesson. With the exception of Miss Evans and Miss Brandon, everyone needs to practice for homework. Especially Mr Black."

The rest of the class left, giggling at the idea of Sirius getting into trouble. Lily left with them, well aware that he was watching her leave, probably not with the happiest expression on his face. Her first idea was to head for the library; she had a bit of charms homework to finish anyway. She turned down an emptier corridor she thought headed to the library and proceeded to try and guess her way there. Ten minutes later she was forced to conclude that she did not know her way around Hogwarts at all. She was hopelessly lost and hadn't seen anyone else in at least three corridors. And the corridors around Hogwarts were long!

Getting a little worried, she decided to go back the way she had come, turned round and headed for the stairs she had just come down. As she did, a figure came out of a doorway on her left. Neither Lily nor the Professor saw the other, as is often the case when you do not expect anyone else to be around and are wrapped up in your own thoughts, and so crashed straight into each other.

Lily's first knowledge of this was being knocked to the floor by a person much larger than herself.

"OH!" The Professor exclaimed. "Sorry about that, didn't see you coming down there my dear! Let's have you up." And, reaching down and taking hold of her arm, he hoisted Lily back onto her feet. "Are you alright?"

Lily nodded quickly.

"Oh don't look so scared. Get a bit lost down here did you?"

More nods.

"Right. You don't look alright, come into my office for a bit."

And before Lily could protest, her had propelled her into his office, sat her by the fire and pushed a glass of pumpkin juice into her hand.

"Come on then, what's your name?"

"Lily Evans."

"Well Miss Evans, I'm Professor Slughorn. I don't think I've had Gryffindor yet this year so you won't know me yet, but I'll be your potions teacher." He paused. "Where were you headed in such a hurry out there anyway? You can't have potions today; we've run out of time in the day!"

"The library, sir."

"The library? Got a bit lost then did you?"

"I think so, sir."

"Not half, you won't find the library down in the Dungeons here. Where did you come from?"

"Transfiguration, with Professor McGonagall."

"Oh dear, yes you're very off course Lily. Never mind, I assume you'll want to go up for dinner now?"

Lily glanced at her watch, it was later than she'd realised.

"Yes sir."

"Oh enough with the sir, we're not in a lesson. I can see I'm not going to have any trouble with you in our potions lessons! Hop up then and we'll head along to dinner."

Lily followed him out of the office, which locked itself behind them, and followed Professor Slughorn down the corridor until he stopped abruptly by a painting on the wall.

"Sherbet Lemon." He said clearly to it. Lily linked in surprise as the painting swung open. She thought it was only the common room entrances that did that!

"Best not tell anyone about this Miss Evans," commented Slughorn with a twinkle in his eye. "There are more passages in this school than even the headmaster can count, so we use the ones we can, but I don't think Professor Dumbledore would be too happy if every student started to traipse through his classroom."

Suddenly the duo found themselves in a classroom, very much like the one Lily had been in for transfiguration not so long ago. A wall hanging moved to cover the hole they had emerged from, and Lily realised that nobody could find it unless they knew it was there, or fell through it by accident or something.

"Right, Miss Evans, dinnertime!"

As Slughorn flung the classroom door open, Lily found herself right next to the dining hall. She paused, eyes wide open.

"Everything alright Lily?"

"We were down in the dungeons a minute ago…"

"Ah, the wonders of Hogwarts. It is not our place to question, only accept that we can get to dinner faster."

And with that he strode into the great hall, with a small wave over his shoulder to Lily, who would have stayed there all evening in shock if Sev had not appeared in her line of view, surrounded by friends.

"Sev!" She called. He looked back, and then motioned for his friends to go on without him. When they had gone through the doors, he met her halfway across the entrance hall, pulling her over to the side out of the way of some fifth years.

"Lily!"

"Where've you been? I've been looking out for you."

"Yeah, I'm spending a lot of time in the common room with my friends. We're a bit late cos were playing exploding snap."

Lily was taken aback. They never talked about other friends. At her old school, Lily had never even mentioned her friends to Sev. When they were together, nobody else existed. She didn't say anything. Sev didn't seem to notice.

"How come you're late?"

"I got lost looking for the library and had a chat with Professor Slughorn in his office and he showed me a really cool passageway through the school into that classroom." She pointed behind her.

Sev looked excited. "A Secret passageway? I thought the others were exaggera-"

He stopped abruptly as a group of Slytherin girls hurried past, one of whom stopped. She looked Lily up and down, and sneered.

"You coming into dinner Sev? Or staying with your, friend?"

Lily didn't like the pause before friend, or the tone this girl was using, or the look she was giving her. In fact, Lily didn't really like this girl. And she got the feeling this girl didn't like her. She also got the feeling the gap before friend was emitting the word 'mudblood', just like the last time she'd tried to talk to Sev, leaving the great hall after the sorting that first day.

"_Hey, Sev, wait up."_

_Sev dutifully waited, and so did two of his new Slytherin friends._

"_What's up Lil?"_

"_Nothing, you alright?"_

"_Yeah, this is Bellatrix and Lucius by the way." He gestured to his friends, who took this as an invitation to join the conversation._

"_You're a Gryffindor?" Bellatrix accused. Lily wasn't sure if she should answer, but went with a truth policy so it couldn't come back to haunt her._

"_Um, yeah."_

"_What houses were your parents in?"_

"_They didn't come to Hogwarts."_

"_Drumstrang? Beauxbatons?_

_Lucius and Bellatrix exchanged glances as Lily simply looked confused. Lucius then exchanged a glance with Sev. Lily didn't like the way this conversation was going._

"_Bella and I will be going now Sev. Are you coming? Or staying with your," he paused, sneering, "mudblood friend?"_

_Sev looked shocked, and then regained his composure. Shooting an apologetic look at Lily, he mumbled "coming" and followed his friends up the stairs without looking back._

_Lily stood there with tears in her eyes. For the first time ever, Sev had just chosen other people over her, even after they'd used that word. That word Sev had promised he would never call anyone, Because, she'd said, he was too nice for that._

And here it was, happening again. Was Sev really going to choose this new girl over her? After everything he'd promised her this summer? Lily hadn't thought she'd lose him this quickly, even after everything that had been said in the Gryffindor common room about how evil Slytherin were.

Yet here they were. But for how long?

"Yeah I'm coming. I need to eat!" Sev patted his stomach jokingly. "You coming in Lily?"

"I'll follow you in." She choked.

He hadn't chosen her. Sev was never bothered about his stomach. Ever. She watched them vanish through the doors before backing into the classroom she had come out of not so long ago, tears streaming down her cheeks.

**What do you think? You're the readers, so please review with comments, constructive criticism and/or plot ideas.**

**Thanks!**


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